Can no longer shield customers — Apple has raised prices of its iPad and MacBook amid soaring memory and storage chip costs driven by the AI industry. The prices of the iPhone, however, remain unaffected. The latestNeo, Apple's lowest-priced laptop for the affordable marketplace, rose too. MacBook Neo entry $599 increasing to $699 MacBook Air 512GB $1099 increasing to $1299 iPad Pro Wifi 256GB $999 increasing to $1199 “We have never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly,” Apple said in a statement. “We have shielded our customers from these increases so far, but we have now reached a point where we need to begin raising prices on a number of products, including today's increases foriPadand Mac.” Apple also raised prices for both versions of its HomePod smart speaker and Apple TV set-top box. Shares of the company were down 0.7% in premarket trading. Apple said in April that existing inventories had helped it keep its gross margins above Wall Street expectations, but that rising memory costs would start to catch up by the end of this month, with profitability expected to fall slightly. “We expect significantly higher memory costs,” CEOTim Cooksaid on a conference call with analysts in late April. "Where we don't give colour beyond June, I can tell you that beyond the June quarter, we believe memory costs will drive an increasing impact on our business," Cook had said. Memory chip makers such as Micron have, in recent months, prioritised orders from AI chipmakers like Nvidia, helping them earn record profits but leaving little supply for electronics makers that have been forced to increase prices. Apple has not disclosed what steps, besides a price hike, it has taken to address rising memory costs. The company said on Thursday, "We know this is not welcome news, and we are working tirelessly to find solutions." Prices of dynamic random access memory, used in virtually all modern tech gadgets, rose as much as 98% in the first quarter of 2026 and is set to jump by another 58% to 63% in the current quarter, according to industry tracker TrendForce. That surge, dubbed by some experts as "RAMageddon", has been driven by a boom in AI data centre construction, with companies like Nvidia signing long-term deals with memory makers who are racing to increase capacity. Micron said on Wednesday it has locked in $22 billion in such long-term commitments from customers looking to secure their memory supplies. The rising costs are expected to weigh heavily on device sales this year, with research firm IDC estimating that the smartphone market will see its biggest-ever annual decline of nearly 14% this year, while the PC market will fall 11.3%. “The memory environment is tough and remains structurally tough for the foreseeable future,” said Ben Bajarin, CEO of technology consulting firm Creative Strategies. “We had already had signals Apple would need to raise prices, and with their supply chain as good as anyone, there is concern the rest of the
